I was thinking that I have never met a scientologist (did go to school with some Jahovah’s witnesses and have an uncle who was a Jahovah’s witness) so thought I would do a search to see where the nearest church or org was closest to me. I was thinking possibly Pittsburgh but what I found was that it was there but didn’t make any headway. Then I found a really interesting article written in 2005 about scientology coming to Pittsburgh, which must have been when a couple tried to create an interest there. The article covered the fair gaming, law suit threats (one toward someone from Carnegie Mellon?), challenged the number of members scientology claimed. Many of the things discussed here.

I’m not surprised that it never took root in steel country, (if yinz, or younz visit there you will fit right in if you call it Pixburgh 🙂 )

Not that I would make the drive but the closest one is in Philadelphia. I just thought it would be interesting.

I don’t recall listening to or reading anything from Hubbard’s 1950’s lectures. In the 1970’s the emphasis was on learning the background of the dianetic and scn grades procedures. If I had come across that quote back then I might have passed over it as part of the scn doctrine of being “at cause” over anything and everything. In other words, “creating an effect” is more important, blah, blah, than experiencing pleasure.

There is so much wrong in those two paragraphs I cannot address it all in this medium. This forum is not set up for lengthy or in depth writing.

My summation is that 1. His premise is false. 2. He is setting up a point of manipulation, blaming the individual for seeking self fulfillment, satisfaction, or personal gain, in order to focus their efforts on his goals.

Thank you though for making me revisit my thoughts. I am modifying my original statement: Hubbard was an evil, manipulative, blithering joyless idiot.

(Bob and Mary are in their front yard planting shrubs)
BOB: What’s all that horn honking over there?
MARY: Sounds like it’s coming from Central Boulevard.
BOB: Well, Which bushes do you want running alongside the driveway?
MARY: Well. I think that…… (looks down driveway) Ah, shit! What in the hell does she want?
BOB: (Looks down driveway) Dammit! Not today!
MARY: For your information, Shaheen, we’re declared! You shouldn’t be even talking to us!
SHAHEEN(Coming up driveway): You two SPs shut up right now! I know you two put up that damn billboard on Central Boulevard!
BOB: Huh? What billboard?
SHAHEEN: Don’t deny it! Just like you two were responsible for that thing with the boats!
MARY: Oh! Which one did the Little One decide on?
SHAHEEN: None and you will address our beloved leader as COB! It cost us a fortune to haul all those boats to the dump!
MARY: Even the garbage scow?
SHAHEEN: Especially the garbage scow! We couldn’t make Payments To Flag that week because of all the expense of hauling away those boats!
BOB: Looks like Wee Willie Winkle didn’t get paid that week.
SHAHEEN: YOU WILL ADDRESS HIM AS COB!
BOB: I’ll address him anyway I like! Anyway, what’s all this about a billboard?
SHAHEEN: The most degrading thing I have ever seen! Our beloved COB is shown as a belly dancer along with Tom Cruise! Whoever did this will pay dearly
(Upon hearing this, Bob and Mary fall onto the driveway doubled over in laughter. Shaheen stands there for a few minutes open mouthed, then turns and walks down the driveway in disgust.
An hour later, Bob and Mary are driving down Central Boulevard. As the horn honking gets louder, they round a curve and finally see what the commotion is about. Directly in front of them and across from a billboard advertising the Scientology Network is a billboard depicting David Miscavige and Tom Cruise as belly dancers playing to a clapping and cheering crowd. The caption reads:
THIS IS SCIENTOLOGY.
Upon seeing this, Bob and Mary break out in uncontrollable laughter and start honking their horn repeatedly)

THE WRITE STUFF (BILLBOARD WARS)
(TO THE TUNE OF ‘THE RIGHT STUFF’ BY NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK)

When I was a toddler, I never thought I’d be
in Florida battling Scientology!
The billboards are all up around Clearwater town!
I want to see the Dwarf try to tear them down!

It seems that Scientology, which once complained bitterly about “copyright terrorists” anytime any of their material was quoted in discussions, now has no qualms about using others’ proprietary themes for their own promotional purposes.

“Drill using Scientology Network to get Scientologists moving up and back onto the bridge” suggests that a lot of their focus at this point is on trying to “recover” lapsed and disaffected members – not on reaching outside the bubble.

The Austin org and their “ideal” project haven’t shown up in any news lately that I can recall, though in January it was reported that they had moved out of their building to a temporary location, with no more sign of work than some setup for construction in the parking lot. It wouldn’t be the first org to renovate their existing building to make it “ideal,” as San Diego recently did, but Austin seems to be more in the territory of the Toronto org in moving out of their building but then not managing to really start work, according to this current report that sounds as if nothing has changed:

“The church is also renovating their parking lot, but no ground has been broken yet. ”

….pointing out another CReePy Aspect of Scn….
(side trip, didja see how I said, “pointing out”, instead of “indicating”? huh? see? I’m getting good with learning how to talk regular)

…Ron L. STOLE a bunch of his ideas, according to the folks I listen to with headsets these days … Apparently Mayo wrote some NOTS, some married couple invented Study Tech… and so on..

The way the promo STEALS ideas and concepts from popular culture, movies and entertainment.. they steal characters, layouts, and fonts… it’s all just stolen stuff…

and then.. they INSERT themselves into it… wear it like a costume…

They’re just effing vultures. They’re thievers.

They’re like the creepy old guy who wants to dress up right to lure in his victims..

“let’s take something you know and like and then appropriate it, shove our faces in, and see if we can prey upon your admiration OF SOMEONE ELSE’S CREATION…and maybe trick you into looking twice at us. At which point, we now have a death grip on your throat.”

It’s nasty. and… petty. It’s a dime-store-cheap-grab type of “artistry” in promo. Has all the originality of american cheese.

………
if I twist my neck really hard and bend my head …I can almost get an idea of how I would have Made My Mind Right about it when I was in… it would have given me pause and would have taken a bit of work to override the icky feeling they give me. I’d’ve done it though. I was good at that.

Alanzo once posted a topic called “How to Stop Thinking and Feeling with Scientology”. The main emphasis was replacing Hubbard-speak with King’s English. A lot of Hubbard-speak is renaming valid concepts and it’s an individual matter of sorting things out. The main aspect, I think, is letting go of the idea that scn had all the answers to everything. I think I went through a similar process of most ex scientologists in that upon reviewing my scn experience the remaining scn-think came into view and some of it I accept and most of it I don’t. That’s my current cognition . . . oops . . . realization.

Let’s elaborate on that a little:
DEMME(points to meter):There, Your Holiness! That’s stress! What did you just think about?
POPE FRANCIS(holding cans):Well, I was thinking about those innocent little boys being violated by my priests and how…….
DEMME(adjusting meter): Thank you! Let’s find another area of stress!

Do the people who run these functions know that it’s at miscreant Miscavige’s order that they make more money, or do they think it’s their supervisor’s doing, and do they believe that getting money by any means is for the greater good or is out of fear, or a bit of both?

I know the big donors get a warm and fuzzy feeling along with a pretty piece of paper proclaiming them as wonderful people helping to save all of mankind, and that’s the end of anything they care about. Don’t they see the barbed wire surrounding the prison compounds? I mean, just how stinking dense are they?

If miscreant Miscavige drinks himself into a coma every night with his single malt whatever, is paranoid seeing enemies at every turn, sates his masochistic urges by coming up with new ways to inflict physical and mental pain, how far away can he be from a total break down? He doesn’t happen to play the fiddle does he?

I feel great sadness for that Brisbane couple. The “wall of people” delusion is just insanity. Do they not realize how empty the ideal orgs are around the world? People are leaving scientology in droves. Ribbon cuttings are followed by empty parking lots.

Pope Francis is not vile. He does not get great joy in murdering and raping little boys. I think you get great joy in in making statements like this. I suggest you save your hateful comments for an anti- Christian website. I’m sure you’ll find plenty of them.

My comments ARE very legitimate. What do you have to hide regarding the Catholic Church? The crimes in Scientology pale insignificance to crimes of the Vatican. Ihttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=72dBtN9rdeE

I didn’t want to get into a flame war here, but you seem intent on starting one, invisible Man..

“What do you have to hide regarding the Catholic Church?” Spoken like a true scientologist. Are you still in?

Once again you ignore the point I’ve made. Your comments, legitimate or otherwise, don’t belong on this forum. We don’t all have the same beliefs here; what we have in common is a desire to see the abomination of scientology laid to waste. There are plenty of other sites where you can bash the Catholic Church to your heart’s content. You should be able to seek them out easily enough.

Once upon a time it was considered good manners not to discuss politics or religion with people you didn’t know very well – for fear you might offend someone. I guess that’s all gone by the wayside with the advent of the internet.

I don’t wish this discussion to escalate and get farther afield, so I won’t respond again. Have at me again if it makes you feel better, but I’m done..

Manners? Don’t make me laugh. Who’s attacking who here? You seem quick to shoot me down for me speaking the truth. You’re a catholic right? Scientology isn’t the only criminal cult
(organised corrupted religion) you know. Were you ever in this scientology cult? I was in it for 20 years. I was a sup and an auditor. I trained at Flag for several years. Woke up to the BS several years ago. Luckily I came out of it fairly unscathed.
You know I’ve got nothing against the bible by the way. I think it’s fantastic for spiritual growth. But the information is very encoded. All Christian followers have been mislead and lied to. But I digress.

Interesting in a morbid, nightmarish kind of way.
The depravity of Scientology & friends are rediscovering the low of lows of the past and are definitely playing ‘history repeats itself’.
I could say, “God help us,” but that’s been said enough. Bring on Season 3 and a whole heap of accurate butt kicking.

I can’t J & D right now. No wisecracks, no words. Still processing the NOI tweets Mike put up today. No words, other than that my shame is great.. This is so – right in my face, what I’m looking at. Hard to explain, but its right in my face and I have to see it. This is the organization I supported for 25 years. I’m so ashamed.

I hear you. But the decay within the Co$ has been extensive with a nutter like Miscavige at the helm and has breached new ground not before comprehended it would ever do. Sure Hubbard turned out to be a crackpot as we look at & decipher his so called tech and realize his research is bs – it has more holes in it than Swiss cheese. This NOI thing is a real shocker though and should offend any civilized person – allow yourself to be offended. Seems a healthy thing to do.

Don’t beat yourself up. In the beginning, the hook was great and attracted mostly good people who wanted a better world. Good people assume the good in others and good people don’t lie. We trusted LRH and he betrayed us.

It’s all about Demento trying to keep his oozlum bird of a “religion” looking even vaguely relevant. There’s very little difference between the personalities of Miscavige and Farrakhan so I’m not surprised that they have gravitated towards each other. Oh yes, and adding more dollars to his bank account.

Oh my, so much to get nauseous about with this weeks flyers.
Olivia Newton John performing at the Ideal Perth Org event? Really??? When I read that I truly went blank.

Very impressive, a new player on the Chan the Man circuit… (admire the drum roll please…) Mr Manuel Suarez! OT6 (& a whole heap of space cooties to go) plus he’s a marketing expert to boot, very snazzy credentials. If you have an overwhelming obsession to be smiled at a lot, (at any and all expense) then he’s your man. mmm I wonder what his food preferences are? Don’t get me wrong, I don’t want no stinking complaint about racial slurs – but I do wonder what he eats in celebration of when he scores a commission? Are there dishes called, Sucker’s delight or Whale blubber burgers?

Also, at a cursory glance I noticed the word “Ideal” was only used 12 times on the flyers this week. Geezers! just a pathetic dozen? That’s mighty downstat. I think all flyer creators need a bit of Qual/Ethic’s time to get the show on the ideal road to ‘Keep Scientology Funded’.

A summer intern “focusing on human trafficking and advocating for religious freedom [sic] a global context.” They make it sound as if she was the Ambassador herself instead of, well, a summer intern. And educating the Pope on human rights? Really?

All the summer interns I ever had “focused” on what they were told to do such as proofreading documents or executing very clearly defined tasks that needed a warm body. No one meant them ill in any way; it’s just the extents of what an intern can generally be expected to do. I don’t recall any of them mingling with our CEO and advising him on how to improve operational efficiency using WISE…

I don’t want to get into a political debate, please God, but the ambassador to the Holy See since the beginning of the Trump administration has been flamethrowing GOP kingpin Newt Gingrich’s Catholic (third) wife Callista; and “religious freedom” is the euphemism on the American right nowadays for not requiring churches, businesses, and employees to comply with government regulations as long as they can make out a case for said regs being contrary to their religious beliefs.

Something that, in the USA, is very important to the RCC in that it would/does exempt their organizations for providing contraception, family planning services, sex advice that isn’t abstinence, and so on. The enormous number of evangelical-operated private schools in the USA have their own causes for which the phrase “religious freedom” has been repurposed. And so forth. I think we can all figure out how being able to hide its deeds and avoid taxation and justified punishments under a “religious freedom” cloak has been and will continue to be of MAJOR importance to CoS.

So as long as this intern is doing her job for THAT favored purpose, I’m sure she won’t be sent home early just for handing His Holiness a little tract that he probably handed to someone else and never read. That’s religious freedom, right?

Weird thing about Scios…they like fad diet things, magical fad diet things, and yet are All Against “Other Practices” or “Other Solutions”.

The Student’s Guide to Acceptable Behavior HCO PL lays out some of this – all the various things that are a No No or that “require permission” … it’s also covered in the HCG PC Guide… basically one knows that Scn answers everything and anything in the entire world not written by LRH is probably wrong or just BS.

So nothing is real except scn… and and..the latest Weird Health Thing that all the scios are glombing onto.

(I was never one for this bandwagon, as you can see from my tone) (I was bandwaggoned enough on SCN)

In my time…I saw all kinds of stuff. The Candida diet..was a big thing. Apparently the only thing health wise wrong with EVERYONE ON THE PLANET was that we all had candida… (screams inwardly over the nonsense from a 2D on this) …. Melaleuca will save the world, Blue Green Algae was on the C/S….

my favorite (barf) was when I was at AOLA and everyone in sight was eating RAW BEEF and sucking back raw eggs, on this “whole food raw diet”. ..(fending off asshats in the lounges wanting to “share” their raw meat and insisting I try)

In the “Quote of the day” Ron wrote “You don’t play for your own pleasure! You got that?”
I’m with Moop in that I don’t get the quote. Somewhere in Ron’s 74X millions of words I seem to recall him writing that pleasure was the reward for pro-survival activities. So, how does the quote of the day fit??

I need some help in understanding this stuff, not attack attack attack please.

Jim: I’m with you. Much of what LRH wrote and said is contradictory and cached in hyperbole. There’s nothing wrong with playing for others, but there’s also nothing wrong with playing for oneself. We just need to to strike a a good balance.

According to published information, execs at some Scientology-related entities, particularly for-profits to which labor laws do apply, and apparently also the supposedly non-religious non-profits, get nominal salaries of around 50K annually – how much of that gets clawed back in mandatory “donations” is another question; ASI was caught just automatically deducting most of staff pay.

Also, in a new video by Chris Shelton discussed yesterday at Tony Ortega’s bunker, orgs are reported to have raised staff pay to 50% of GI. My guess is that if anything, that only brings it back to the same sort of purchasing power that it had decades ago, not to mention which international management must then be forgoing some “uplines” payments, meaning a further shift towards effectively subsidizing the local orgs to try to keep the doors open.

“A” breakfast for all occupants…. Is that one per room, or one for all who come, including the starving SO crew? They SEEM to be implying one per person, but I’m cynical enough these days to expect the most outrageous falsehoods in their promotions, particularly when it could be taken to be a freebie, which they never, ever, possibly would do.

As an Northern Hemispherian, I need help with just one item on the Australian icons checklist. I got the boomerang, the koala, the kangaroo, the Paul Hogan hat, the crocodile, the indigenous Australian, Ayer’s Rock, the meat pie and the cockatoo. But what’s the guy in the iron helmet supposed to be?

I’m not from Australia, so I probably not qualified to respond; however, my first thought was that it had to do with Mad Max. When I google Mad Max, however, I don’t see that particular outfit/costume/armor. It kind of looks like a dystopian version of Ned Kelly’s armor.

Ned Kelly, (not to be confused with Ned Course) is worth looking up if you’ve interested and never heard of him. He was a crazy MF but so were the police, called “Traps” at the time, which were a follow on from earlier military run rule in the policing/control of convicts while Australia was run as a British colony. Even Mick Jagger played Ned in a movie of Ned Kelly, then Heath Ledger (RIP) did a movie on him too. Ned was the type of guy who would a hold up a whole town and give everyone there a party at the local pub. He did murder a couple of police though, who in turn weren’t really out to capture him, but were basically ordered to bring him to justice with bullets. Ned knew this very well, he literally retaliated by declaring war on the police, even built himself body armor. He was shot/wounded/captured at a small town called Glenrowan. Then taken to Melbourne where they hung him despite a petition signed by 60,000 to spare him from the hangman’s noose. He was pretty famous in his own time, but that was also bolstered by the resentment that accompanied a despised and corrupt police/governmental system. Hence his folk hero status.

Petition for Reprieve

To His Excellency the Governor-In-Council, –
Your humble PETITIONERS (having carefully considered the circumstances of the case) respectfully pray that the Life of the CONDEMNED man, EDWARD KELLY, may be spared.

To read Ned Kelly’s story go to; ‘Our Ned Kelly’ http://www.convictcreations.com/history/nedkell…
“Let the hand of the law strike me down if it will; but I ask my story be heard and considered.” (Ned Kelly 1880) 60,000 Victorians signed a petition demanding that Ned be spared the gallows.

The authorities at the time of Ned were pretty much from the same British mold as the ones that inspired the War of Independence in the US imo. Such was British Imperial arrogance.

You’re welcome. Another fella that might give you another taste of the life and times of the Australian bushranger is Dan Morgan – he was real nutter but history has mellowed him somewhat. It’s an interesting history – Australian Bushrangers. Some of ’em would make the general US outlaw of the 1800s look pretty ordinary. The Australian bush can be and is an inhospitable place without support. Easy to go crazy out there in the early days of colonization.

Dan Morgan (30 April 1830 – 9 April 1865), born John Fuller, was an Australian bushranger. Nicknamed “Mad Dog”, he was known for his erratic behaviour and often violent mood swings, and was regarded in his time as “the most bloodthirsty ruffian that ever took to the bush in Australia”.

After he had killed a trooper in July 1864, the Government of New South Wales put a £1,000 bounty on Morgan’s head. He was shot and killed after holding up Peechelba Station in Victoria.

His exploits inspired the 1976 Ozploitation film Mad Dog Morgan, starring Dennis Hopper in the title role.

Another one is Captain Moonlite. ie Andrew George Scott (baptised 5 July 1842 – 20 January 1880), also known as Captain Moonlite, was an Irish-born Australian bushranger and folk figure. This is one of things that guy did:
On 8 May 1869, Scott was accused of disguising himself and forcing bank agent Ludwig Julius Wilhelm Bruun, a young man whom he had befriended, to open the safe. Bruun described being robbed by a fantastic black-crepe masked figure who forced him to sign a note absolving him of any role in the crime. The note read “I hereby certify that L.W. Bruun has done everything within his power to withstand this intrusion and the taking of money which was done with firearms, Captain Moonlite, Sworn.”

Scientologists believe L. Ron Hubbard has all the answers life, from the mundane to the deepest questions of the origins of the universe and immortality. Literally everything. They claim they don't see him as a messiah or god.
https://t.co/VyCpvdJpep